Shot bandit remanded

Sep 06, 2017 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Convicted robber, Mark Griffith, who was shot last week Tuesday after robbing a businesswoman

Convict: Mark Griffith

at Liliendaal Railway Embankment, Greater Georgetown, was remanded to prison on two counts of robbery under-arms when he appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul.
Griffith, 23, of Sheet Anchor, East Canje Berbice was not required to plead to the indictable charges and was remanded until October 4, when he appeared in the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Courts yesterday.
Last October, Griffith was charged and remanded to prison for robbing a Cumberland Berbice couple.
Griffith while armed with a gun, along with others entered the home of Navindra Singh at Cumberland Village, Canje, Berbice and robbed him of a laptop valued $100,000, a Samsung Galaxy phone valued $60,000, a gold ring, a tablet and two gold chains valued $230,000.
After being apprehended by the police, Griffith was found in possession of some of the articles which were later identified by Singh as his property.
He secured bail earlier this year; but after posting the sum he never returned to court for the trial.
The Magistrate proceeded with the trial in his absence and found that there was sufficient evidence to convict him for the offence at the close of the prosecution’s case.
Griffith was sentenced to two years in jail in his absence in June.
Last week’s robbery left ex-prison officer Trydon Munroe, 24, of Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, Berbice dead. He was shot by a security escort for the 42-year-old businesswoman.
Police are still seeking the driver of the getaway car.
The security escort was accompanying the woman, a supervisor for Interior Flight Services, after she had uplifted several packages, containing cash and gold from the Eugene F. Correia International Airport. She was driving to the city with the bodyguard in the passenger seat of her motorcar, when they were confronted by two gunmen.
As they were returning to Georgetown on the Railway Embankment, a dark-coloured motorcar drove past their vehicle and began driving slowly in front of them before it came to a stop, preventing the businesswoman from proceeding forward.
Munroe and Griffith then exited from the backseat of the vehicle and approached the woman’s car, demanding that she hand over the bags containing cash and gold— this was as Munroe “cranked” his weapon as if he was going to shoot.
Kaieteur News understands that the bags containing the valuables were handed over to the two men and as they were making their way back to their waiting motorcar, the security man came out of the car and opened fire on the men.
Reports are that the two bandits dropped the stolen bags and attempted to run towards their vehicle but the driver sped away, leaving them behind.
Munroe attempted to open fire but collapsed onto the roadway where he was confirmed dead. Detectives found a .32 pistol with three live matching rounds next to Munroe’s lifeless body.
A senior prison official confirmed that Munroe was dismissed from the Guyana Prison Service in March for breaching the agency’s regulation after being regularly absent from duty.
He was also being investigated by the prison authorities for allegedly smuggling contraband into the prison.
This newspaper learnt that in May 2015, the businesswoman suffered a similar fate when bandits invaded her home and shot her and her son, who had tried to defend themselves with a cricket bat.

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